April 10, 2014
Live Results
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego State men's golf team closes off its regular-season schedule this weekend when it hits the road for the 68th annual Western Intercollegiate, April 12-13, in Santa Cruz, Calif. The two-day, 54-hole event commences Saturday with a shotgun start at 8:15 a.m. PT on the par-70, 6,615-yard Pasatiempo Golf Course.
Along with the No. 39 Aztecs, the elite field features nine additional squads ranked in the latest Golfstat.com top-50 index, including No. 3 California, fourth-ranked Stanford, No. 12 Texas, 17th-ranked Washington, No. 22 USC, 27th-ranked SMU, No. 28 Arizona State, 41st-ranked Memphis and No. 43 Oregon, while host San José State, Hawai'i, UC Irvine and UTEP round out the list of competing schools.
The Western Intercollegiate is a six-count-five tournament, with SDSU's Xander Schauffele (San Diego, Calif.), James Holley (Chatsworth, Calif.), Riccardo Michelini (Carpi, Italy), Nahum Mendoza III (San Diego, Calif.), Ricky DeSantis (Carlsbad, Calif.) and Austin Kaiser (Atascadero, Calif.) comprising head coach Ryan Donovan's starting lineup. In addition, the Scarlet and Black will be represented by Michael Koeneke (San Diego, Calif.), who is entered as an individual.
The Aztecs are making their fourth straight appearance at the Western Intercollegiate, but just their fifth since 2001. Last year, SDSU took fifth with a team score of 40-over 1,090, finishing five strokes behind fourth-place Washington (+35), while Cal (+1) was the runaway winner after besting UCLA (+14) and Stanford (+31).
Schauffele, Michelini, Holley and Kaiser will all be making their second consecutive starts this weekend on the Pasatiempo layout, which was originally designed by Alister McKenzie, the architect of Augusta National.
Schauffele is the tournament's top returning golfer after posting a fourth-place finish on the individual leaderboard in 2013 with a 7-under 209, while Michelini tied for the 17th position at 1-under 215, followed by Holley (T-63rd, (+11)) and Kaiser (T-68th, (+13)).
Schauffele, who is ranked 55th nationally in the latest Golfstat individual rankings, owns a team-best 72.07 stroke average, while his average score of +0.41 in relation to par ranks fifth in the Mountain West. The Scripps Ranch High alumnus captured his second MW Men's Golfer of the Week award this season after finishing alone in fifth place at Texas A&M's prestigious Aggie Invitational on April 5.
The Western Intercollegiate was christened in 1947 and is the oldest running men's college golf tournament west of the Mississippi River. Lars Johansson is the most recent SDSU individual champion at the event, taking home medalist honors in 2001 after defeating Jason Higton of Pacific on the first hole of a sudden death playoff. In addition, Kris Moe emerged triumphant at the Western in 1983, while Ron O'Connor accomplished the feat in 1960, leading the Aztecs to their only team title in the history of the tournament.
Other notable winners of the Western Intercollegiate include Ken Venturi (1951, 1953), Johnny Miller (1968), Howard Twitty (1972), Peter Jacobsen (1974), Mark O'Meara (1978), Bobby Clampett (1980), Duffy Waldorf (1984), Arron Oberholser (1996), Joel Kribel (1997, 1999) and Jason Allred (2000).
Following this weekend's event, SDSU will have 11 days to gear up for the 2014 Mountain West championships, slated for April 25-27 at the OMNI National Golf Club in Tucson, Ariz.